Chibified
by Sherra-sama
Summary: What the...? All of the Dark Lords have been chibified and have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of whom they are???? And the servants have to take care of them?? O.O Please, R&R!!!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer~ I don't own Slayers or any of its characters, nor am I claiming to. :)  
  
Author's notes: I'm telling you now, there is mild Valgarv swearing in this. If you don't like profanity, then don't read!  
  
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Sherra was in an unusually good mood this morning. She had gotten up, bathed, and dressed earlier than usual. Too early for Dolgoufa's taste, who was moodily hooked to her belt, but that was too bad. She was walking quite contentedly to her master's bedchambers. He should be awake by now. It had been a sleeping night for both of them. Mazoku don't need sleep every night. Lord Dynast always got up early. Sherra could sense Grau and Norst in the citadel. They were both in the library. She reached his door and rapped on it twice.  
  
When there was no reply, she opened the door and peeked inside. "Dynast- sama....?" Sherra stopped short at the scene that lay before her. There was dead quiet for several seconds before a loud yell sounded throughout the citadel and telepathic messages were blasted to the other general and priest.  
  
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Xelloss was sitting on the foot of the bed in his master's bedchambers, staring at what he supposed was his master. When he had gone in to wake her up, he was greeted by a small, very frightened child. Its astral signature was that of Lord Beastmaster, but she didn't know who he was. He'd been in her service for several millennia, her sole servant, and she had the nerve to forget him?! Well, now that she was dressed and fed, Xelloss could think. His master was a small child, maybe two, and had no recollection whatsoever of ANYTHING.  
  
She was still mazoku, but all she could do is feed. No teleportation, no telepathy, no monster form, certainly no beast form, no attack abilities, no nothing. Her powers had evidently been sealed along with her memories, but by whom? Well, that narrowed the suspect list quite a bit. Only beings stronger than Lord Beastmaster can seal her powers away. That left only the other Dark Lords, the Dragon Kings, Lord Ruby-eye, Ceipheed, or L- sama. That made...11 suspects. There was only one thing left to do: go to the bases of the other four dark lords and see if similar things had happened to them. If it had, then they obviously weren't the ones who did it.  
  
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Valgarv was NOT in a good mood. He woke up this morning only to find out from Raltark and Rashart that Lord Garv had been turned into a...a...toddler! "What the bloody hell is going on?? Of course, those two won't get off their sorry asses and do something!" he roared.  
  
Valgarv had been left with the duty of "babysitting." If this particular baby hadn't been Lord Garv, he may have taken the term "babysitting" at face value. Little Garv, who was actually kind of cute, a welcome change from his horrifyingly hideous adult form, was sitting a few feet away from the angst-driven Valgarv. He was playing with wooden blocks, making little towers and knocking them down over and over again.  
  
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Poor, poor Sunfish. He was a priest-in-training at Deep Sea Dolphin's stronghold. Most would have to admit that he'd make a better interior decorator, but too bad. Lord Dolphin had bounced down the halls of the undersea palace at about 4 A.M. in a form of about age two, breaking everything in sight. It had taken Charybdis and Scylla, the High Priestess and Commanding General, nearly two hours to catch the rampant Lord Dolphin. Much to Sunfish's dismay, HE had been put in charge of Lord Dolphin for a few minutes while Scylla and Charybdis scryed for the perpetrator. As soon as the priestess and general left, Lord Dolphin had announced that she was teething and had latched onto Sunfish's leg. This was going to be a long, long morning.  
  
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Even Hellmaster had changed forms. He was now a small child of about age three rather than nine. Kurai, his General and Kagami, his priestess were -quite- surprised when they found him. Of course, they were used to his childish antics. They had given him cookies and he was slowly and happily eating all 5786 of them. It would keep him quiet in one corner of the room while they found out who was going to die a most horrible death for doing such a heinous act toward their master. After all, the most fun part of being a mazoku is the killing, particularly when you assist in the management of Hell.  
  
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That's it for the prologue. This idea is still in its very early stages, so it'll most likely be coming along more slowly than I would like. Either way, now that you've read, please review it!! 


	2. Chapter 2

~Mighty Disclaimer of Incoherent DOOM!: I don't own Slayers, so don't dare sue, worthless ningen-tachi!!!!! :: evil cackle:: O.o  
  
Author's notes: I have renewed my love for Violinist of Hameln!! But I'm sure you don't care!! Um, I'm going to try to balance out the PoV's, but this'll probably focus more on the Dynast-tachi because I like them better, and I'm experimenting with Norst's character. ^^; He may make me up the rating to PG-13. Oh, and thank you Schwarz for the title idea! ^^  
  
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Numbly, Sherra walked into the room. Her mind was still shut down from the initial shock of what she had seen. Instead of her master, there was a...a baby on his bed! Actually, now that she took a closer look, the baby looked like Dynast-sama...sort of. He was around one and two years of age. The toddler looked up when Sherra walked in, and instantly made for her. He crawled to the end of the bed and nearly fell off when Sherra snapped out of it and grabbed him. Awkwardly, she adjusted the toddler in her arms and sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked up at Sherra and blinked curiously at her. Now she was sure that this was her Dynast-sama. He had the same seamless gray eyes, messy black hair, heck, even his mannerisms were the same.  
  
It was now that Norst and the twins burst into the room. Grou had returned from wherever he had been when Sherra sent the summons for them. The four servants of the Supreme King just blinked at each other for a moment before Norst smiled cheekily and said with a teasing tone, "Why Sherra-chan! You didn't tell us that you were going to have a baby! We could have had a party!" Sherra glared at her "brother" while the twins face-faulted.  
  
Norst continued to laugh at Sherra while she yelled at him to shut up. In the meantime, Grau had carefully approached the irate Sherra and began to inspect the baby. He quickly came to the same conclusion as Sherra had. It was Dynast-sama. But what happened? That was the question. Suddenly, Sherra stood. She was still yelling at Norst, who had a talent for annoying her, and Grausherra had buried his face in her shoulder. "It would seem that Dynast-sama doesn't remember us.." Grou began, but was cut off by Sherra's sharp "WHAT?!"  
  
Grou sweatdropped when Sherra stormed up to him. She was scary when she was mad. She knelt down in front of the eight-year old and asked in a voice that she forced to be calm, "What do you mean, 'Dynast-sama doesn't remember us'? What's happened to him?" The twins swallowed softly before Grau said, "He's had a spell put on him, a potent one cast by someone stronger than him. His age seems to have been turned back; he doesn't remember us, you can tell by the way he's acting. He doesn't remember anything. Check his astral signature."  
  
Everyone was silent for a moment before Norst said, "He can't teleport, either...in fact all he can do is feed; the bulk of his power has been sealed as well. .ano, Sherra-chan?" Sherra was wearing her signature Look of Death. Norst sweatdropped while the twins backed away. "I am going to KILL the worthless idiot who DARED to curse Dynast-sama!! And them I'll have Lord Hellmaster bring them back to life so I can torture them and then kill them again!!" "Sherra! Tone it down! You'll scare Dynast-sama!!" Grau scolded. Sherra blinked twice before adjusting her Lord's position in her arms so she could take a look at his face. "He looks fine to me," she said dubiously. Indeed, little Grausherra couldn't be better. Grau, Grou and Norst face faulted again.  
  
"Okay, Grau and I'll go around and investigate the other Lords; you two stay here and watch Dynast-sama. Oh, and Sherra, try not to kill Norst this time," Grou said as he and his brother teleported off, leaving a smiling Norst and a glowering Sherra behind in a soon-to-be war zone.  
  
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Kagami and Kurai were still scrying away, but in vain. They were completely dumbfounded, and Kurai was put out that she wouldn't be able to take anyone down with her scythe today. Kagami let the scrying spell dissipate as she leaned against the wall with a huff. "Now what?" Kurai said from the other corner of the room, where she was tearing her master away from Mt. Cookie.  
  
"Hmm, I see that Lord Hellmaster isn't the culprit." a thoughtful voice said. The two women turned around, not very surprised. "Ah, and we see that it isn't Lord Dynast who is behind this, either," Kagami said calmly. "Hmm, but then who possesses the power to curse our master?" Grou wondered aloud. "The other Dark Lords aren't very likely, now that we know that both Lord Hellmaster and Lord Dynast have been cursed," Kurai added. "It is settled then," Kagami spoke up, "we will investigate the other Lords, and if none of them is the culprit, then we will have a meeting. This act will not go unpunished!"  
  
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Several hours later, it had been determined that all of the Dark Lords had been cursed. It was decided that the Generals would take care of their masters while the Priests went out and about to investigate.  
  
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"Bloody Hell!" a voice roared from deep within Garv's stronghold. If the GENERAL has to watch Garv-sama, -Raltark-, then why am I stuck watching him??!! The aforementioned General simply glared at the eternally angsty Valgarv, who was currently very irate as well. "Keep your mouth shut, boy, and stay here until we come back!" Rashart ordered. The General and Priest of the Chaos Dragon soon disappeared. Valgarv simply looked at little Garv- sama, who was still quite contentedly playing with the wooden blocks. "How am I supposed to take care of him?" Valgarv asked the empty room, even though he knew that no answer would be given.  
  
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Sunfish had retreated into a gloomy haze when he found out that he had been landed with the important task of watching Lord Dolphin. She was the epitome of the term "terrible twos." A playpen had been set up for her, and she was currently breaking all the toys in it. At least she wasn't chewing on his leg anymore. Charybdis had gotten some teething rings for Dolphin-sama, and she was contentedly chewing on those while she broke her toys. Sunfish hadn't been aware that there were toys in the stronghold, but oh well.  
  
He was sadly re-decorating the room. It was hard to find the appropriate colors and textures for the curtains and vases and rugs. He heard a crash, and turned around only to find that Lord Dolphin had managed to knock over her playpen. For the next twenty minutes, a panicky Sunfish chased a gleeful Lord Dolphin all over that wing of the citadel.  
  
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Xelloss, in the meantime, had quite a problem on his hands. Being the sole servant to his master, he was the priest and the general, and each position had been given different orders. The answer was obvious, but Xelloss didn't like it. He had to take Lord Beastmaster on the search with him. It was too dangerous for her in her current condition. A young mazoku isn't allowed out of its home until it can at least kill. That's a given! Exasperated, he shook his head. What he needs is a Babysitter. Hmm...  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~end chapter~  
  
::sweatdrop:: More Xelloss in next chapter, I promise. I'm still setting up the story here.  
  
O.o Xelloss is going out to find a babysitter? Will Valgarv accidentally kill Garv due to inexperience? Will Sherra kill Norst? Will Dolphin drive Sunfish insane? Something tells me we're going to have some seriously scarred chibi Mazoku before I'm through! Please, R&R! ((O.O That RHYMED! Unintentionally! .....I need to cut back on the caffeine...)) Remember, if you don't review, then I don't update! 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers. I own Grau and Grou. DON'T STEAL THEM. ^- ^ Thank you.  
  
Author's Notes: I'm running out of ideas. @.@ not enough to go around. Oh, and Gaav, Valgaav, and Phibrizzo are alive because I'm the author and I said so! This isn't following any timeline. Yay! ^o^ I put plenty of Xelloss in here! Thankies to all of you that reviewed my previous chapters! I got 11 for chappie 2! Waii!! ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~  
  
Xelloss smirked to himself. Yes. A babysitter would be good. He began to run through his list of people, which was rather...short. The other servants were out of the question. Which left...the Lina-tachi. He really didn't want to leave a helpless Dark Lord with Miss Inverse or any of her friends. He looked up when he heard Zelas-sama squeal with delight. The wolf pack had found her and she was petting one of the pups. And getting slobbered all over. He ran through his options with convincing Lina to watch Lord Beastmaster and not harm her. He could bribe Lina with an incredible amount of money, could tell her that Luna said to, could make it look like Lord Beastmaster was a waif and somehow the only survivor of an otherwise decimated village.  
  
Xelloss was yanked out of his thoughts once again when he felt a sharp tug on his cape. He knelt down to face his Lord.  
  
"What can I do for you, Zelas-sama?"  
  
"Joo."  
  
Xelloss actually blinked. Joo? What is joo? He stood up, slightly confused. Then it hit him. "Of course!" he said, hitting one fist in the palm of his other hand. "You want juice!"  
  
"Joo,"came the affirmative reply.  
  
He summoned a cup of grape juice, complete with the sippy top, and handed it to Zelas-sama. "There ya go," he said. She took the cup and began to drink, succeeding in dribbling some of the juice onto her spotless white dress. Now, back to the problem at hand. Hmm...telling Lina that Luna said to would require his visiting the Ceipheed Knight, Dark Lord in tow. Not a good idea. The waif thing probably wouldn't work, either; Lina is not well known for her charity. That meant he had to bribe her, which wouldn't be too hard.  
  
~`~`~` ::Mini scene change! Yatta!::  
  
Xelloss picked up his Lord, and with the flick of a finger the stains on her dress were gone. He then located the Lina-tachi via the Astral Plane, and teleported out.  
  
He materialized on the roof of the restaurant they were eating at. Next to him, Grau teleported in.  
  
"What brings you out here, Xelloss?" The man asked, seating himself on the roof.  
  
"I'm going to have Miss Inverse watch Lord Beastmaster for me," Xelloss said, sitting as well. He put the baby on his lap.  
  
Grau sweatdropped. "Lina Inverse babysitting a Dark Lord? How do you plan on convincing her?" he asked  
  
A bag of gold coins and various other treasures appeared in Xelloss' free hand. "Gold. Lots of gold," he smiled.  
  
Grau laughed, "This I gotta see."  
  
"Tickets are...free," Xelloss smiled as the Lina-tachi left the restaurant.  
  
~`~`~`  
  
"Ahh...that was good," Lina sighed, patting her stomach. How she could eat so much and not gain an ounce remains a mystery, even to this day. She had eaten her regular amount, about twenty courses. Gourry was satisfied as well. "Now for dessert!" She said happily.  
  
"But Miss Lina," Amelia chirped, her normal chipper self, "we don't have any money left; you and Mr. Gourry spent it all on lunch." Lina sweatdropped. "Don't you have your crest from Sailuun on you?" She asked Amelia, turning toward the younger girl with her Look of Death. "N-no," Amelia stammered, "Daddy wouldn't let me take it this time because we spent too much last time."  
  
"Well then," Lina said, now wearing her Look of Impending Doom as she grabbed Amelia by the shoulder, "we only have one option open to us."  
  
"What's that?" Amelia asked, now wearing a sweatdrop the size of Elmekia.  
  
"We pimp Amelia off!" Lina said triumphantly.  
  
It took all of Gourry and Zelgadis' strength to pry Lina off of the thoroughly frightened Amelia.  
  
"Oh, that won't be necessary, Lina," Xelloss said, teleporting in a couple of feet from the group.  
  
"What do you want, Xelloss?" Zelgadis spat, glaring at the Mazoku.  
  
"Oh, nothing much," Xelloss said.  
  
"Who's the kid?" Lina asked, eyeing the toddler Xelloss was holding.  
  
"This? It's Lord Beastmaster," Xelloss said brightly.  
  
"WHAT?" Lina shouted as Amelia backed away about three feet and Gourry blinked confusedly. Zelgadis eyed the baby suspiciously.  
  
"I'm willing to pay you an incredible amount to watch her for me for a little bit," Xelloss said, addressing Lina specifically.  
  
The ca-ching of a cash register went off in Lina's head. With starry eyes she asked, "How much?"  
  
Xelloss pulled a bag of valuables a few times bigger than his head out of hammer space. "This much in advance," he said, "and this much afterward if Lord Beastmaster is happy and healthy when I come back to get her."  
  
Lina took the bag from Xelloss and sifted through it. She looked up at him, her eyes starrier if that's at all possible. "There are pre-Kouma artifacts in here...those sell for A LOT of money..." she said dreamily, "Okay Xelloss, you have yourself a deal!" She said, taking the toddler from the Lesser Beast.  
  
"One question, though," Lina said, staring pointedly at Xelloss, "How'd she get like this?"  
  
Xelloss smiled brightly and tsked her with one finger, saying "Sore wa...himitsu desu," as he teleported out.  
  
Very faintly, the hysterical laughing of a man could be heard.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`  
  
"You JERK!" Sherra yelled, swinging at Norst with Dolgoufa. He had made another suggestive comment and this time he had crossed the line and shattered her patience and self-control, which isn't too hard if you know which buttons to push. He had to work to avoid her blade, though. Dynast- sama had trained her well.  
  
"Now, now, Sherra-chan, Lord Dynast wouldn't be very pleased if you killed me again, would he? From what I heard, you had quite a punishment last time," Norst said.  
  
Sherra checked mid-swing. She glared at him and sheathed her sword. "If you'd be nicer to me, then I wouldn't have had to kill you!" She snapped. Norst watched her, amused, as she went over to the bed and picked up their Lord. He looked around the room. "We should have Grau cast a restoration spell in here," he said slowly. Sherra blinked twice and looked around the room. It looked like a tornado had torn through it. Both sweatdropped and made a speedy exit from the room, or what was left of it.  
  
Sherra went to her room; there was a ward up against Norst from one night about a week ago when he wouldn't stop teasing her. Grau had put it up for her. She put Dynast on the bed and went to the vanity to braid her hair up. She could keep an eye on him through the mirror while she did her hair. He was lying on his stomach, watching her.  
  
She smiled at him, "Norst can't come in here; we're safe from him." She hopped onto the bed and grabbed the baby. "Do you remember me?" She asked him. The toddler blinked at her. She frowned. She didn't like that he didn't remember her. She began to wonder about what she should do next. She remembered that you were supposed to talk to babies and handle them a lot. She could do that. She'd been doing it all day. She looked out a window. It was getting late. "I guess it's time for bed, huh?" She asked her Lord. He had already fallen asleep.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~` Fin.  
  
Yeah, I know there's only two Dark Lords here. I ran out of ideas and I didn't want to wait another week or five to post it. --; But I gave all of ya plenty of Xelloss, ne? And since DSD, Garv, and Phibby aren't in this chapter, there should be a lot of them in the next, ne? Anyway, if you have any ideas for what you want to see happen, say so in a review, or E-mail me at: sherra@northernfootholds.zzn.com Ideas would be more than appreciated. They're desperately needed. I seriously ran out. --;;;;;;;;; So, now that you've come thus far, please review it. I don't update if I don't get any reviews. So review!! 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers.  
  
Omnipotent Author's Notes: I'm still alive! Here's an update to prove it! XD I wrote this mostly during Chemistry. ^^ Enjoy it!  
  
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"Lina, why the hell did you say yes to him?!" That demand was courtesy of Zelgadis.  
  
Said sorceress was too busy fawning over her latest fortune to pay him any heed. When Xelloss had suddenly teleported away, Lina had had a momentary fear that he would take her "payment in advance" with him.  
  
True to his word, Xelloss had left the sack of priceless valuables along with little Zelas behind. Aforementioned toddler was sitting on the ground, silently enjoying the snack that was Zel's frustration.  
  
"Lina!" This time Zelagdis' tone was biting and sharp. Knowing that he wouldn't leave her alone about it until she answered him, she humored him with a chirpy all-too-innocent "What?"  
  
Zel glowered at the petite sorceress and repeated himself through clenched teeth: "You heard me: why did you say 'yes' to him?"  
  
Lina sighed and stood, taking on a slightly lecturing pose. "What kind of question is that? Look at how much I'm getting paid for watching a baby!"  
  
"Lina," Zelgadis said, "were you too busy ogling the money to notice that that baby is ONE OF THE DARK LORDS UNDER RUBY-EYED SHABRANIGDU?! She's a MAZOKU!"  
  
"So I've noticed," Lina said, causing Zel to turn his back to her, shaking his head and sporting a small sweatdrop.  
  
Lina surveyed her surroundings, her hands on her hips. She and Zel were in the middle of the road, along with the chibified Zelas-Metallium. Amelia was sitting at the base of an oak tree, enjoying the view of the field and dense forest surrounding them while Gourry was fast asleep in the grass.  
  
Lina sighed. All was silent for a few moments before she cried out: "Alright! Enough talk; we're off! Gourry! Take Beastmaster and let's go!" Lina's voice was loud enough to catch the attention of the local Bandits.  
  
Five or six grossly muscular thugs jumped out of their cover in the forest ahead of the Slayers, effectively blocking the road. The thieves silently eyed the three that were visible to them: Zelgadis, Lina, and Zelas.  
  
"Five us all your loot or else!" One of the lackeys shouted. Lina and Zel blinked at them a couple of times.  
  
Seeing that the two of them needed convincing, the Leader addressed Zel specifically: "If you don't give us your loot we'll kill your wife and kid!" He clearly thought that Lina and Zel was a young couple.  
  
The silence that followed the bandit's remark was full of foreboding. Lina and Zel were both an interesting shade of red.  
  
"W-WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY?" This deafening shriek was courtesy of none other than Lina.  
  
She was so embarrassed that she couldn't take it, so she did the first thing that came to mine: "Fireball! Flare bit! Burst Flare! BURST RONDO!"  
  
The bandits didn't even have a chance to scream.  
  
Still a bit pink but feeling much better nonetheless, Lina Inverse, Sorceress Supreme, dusted her hands.  
  
She turned toward the others; Amelia and Gourry had gotten up to watch the bandits get blown sky-high.  
  
"Wow, Miss Lina,' Amelia said as she gazed at the spot in the sky where the bandits had vanished, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand.  
  
Lina began to walk, slinging the sack of priceless artifacts over one shoulder. Gourry grabbed the little Juu-ou and followed. Amelia fell in line behind Gourry while Zelgadis took up the rear.  
  
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"ARRGH! I can't do this!"  
  
Valgarv was at the end of his rope. He couldn't take his eyes off of the little Garv for even a second. The little guy got into everything!  
  
Val was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the hideout. Aforementioned Chaos Dragon was somewhere in the room, Val was certain of that. He had just lost track of the little punk barely twenty seconds ago. A loud crash sounded, followed by the sound of metal hitting stone. With a grumble, Val got to his feet to see what his Lord had gotten into this time.  
  
Garv had knocked down a weapons' rack but was miraculously unharmed. Valgarv picked his way through the exposed blades of various highly dangerous and painful weapons and grabbed a hold of Garv. He slipped the Maryu-ou under one arm and left the room. He couldn't do this alone; not only did he not know how to take care of kids, but he most certainly did NOT have the patience to learn.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
Of course, Sunfish had similar sentiments about his beloved Lord Dolphin...  
  
"WHEE!" Dolphin cried gleefully as she slid headfirst down four stories of a spiraling marble staircase on a pillow with a silken pillowcase. When she hit the floor, the super-cushy pillow slid at least another fifteen feet due to inertia and the slick quality of silk.  
  
Not at all ready to let her fun with the pillow end, she somehow managed to rip the pillow open. She glanced up and saw Sunfish running down the stairs. Dolphin plunged her chubby little hands into the pillow's downy stuffing and pulled out as many feathers as she could hold and flung them all around herself.  
  
Sunfish nearly started crying when he saw this new mess.  
  
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Phibrizzo was having a similarly good time. He had wandered outside of the stronghold and immediately began to play in the desert sand. By the time Kurai had found him-which was only about five minutes later- he had managed to get sand all over himself, including in his hair.  
  
When Phibby was Kurai sneaking up on him, he began to giggle and fling sand at her. She teleported to avoid the onslaught of Killer Sand and scooped the giggling child up.  
  
"...I'm sorry Lord Hellmaster, but you need a bath."  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
And here ends installment four. It took me a while to crank this one out, didn't it? ^^; Well, I wrote this whole dang thing today! ^-^ So, what do you think? Like it? Absolutely abhor it's presence? Tell me in a review!  
  
Suggestions welcome and ENCOURAGED! ^^ 


	5. Chapter 5

~Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers, but I DO this version of Grau/Grou/Grau.  
  
Author's notes: THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO REVIEWED!! Seeing as this had as many reviews as Frozen Summer, but considerably less chapters, this is my most popular fic. Needless to say, they were tied for the most reviews. :: Sherra-sama gives the fic a "Most Popular" stamp:: And so I have written another chapter. I hope you enjoy it.  
  
And as for my Slayers fics in general, this one and Frozen Summer are the only two that will be given regular updates at this point, simply because of all the feedback I get. And the fact that they're my two favorite has absolutely nothing to do with it... ^^;  
  
I am so sorry it took so long for me to post this. I had to make sure it was as good as I wanted, then for a while, when I uploaded this onto the site, all my apostrophes and quotation marks (' and ", for those who had no idea what I was talking about... ^^; ) were somehow turned into a series of symbols, like you'd see if there was Japanese writing and your browser didn't support Japanese. Being the perfectionist I am, I refused to post this until it was -perfect-. So enjoy! ^-^  
  
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"Ick. What a dump," Kurai said distastefully.  
  
She and Kagami had hatched a plan. They were quite proud of themselves. The news of their plan spread and the lesser servants in Phibrizzo's stronghold had suddenly found themselves little, obscure tasks to do, all of which were as far as physically and astrally possible from the Priestess and General. The two of them were notorious for the high peon-minion-death- toll their plans tended to include. And lesser servants definitely fit into the category of "peon minion".  
  
But, back to the here and now. Kurai had gone to visit our favorite Ancient Dragon/Mazoku halfling and had found his place of dwelling to be a mess, which she was commenting on and not being very tactful about it, to boot.  
  
"If you don't like it, then leave," Valgarv's derisive voice came from the other side of the room, where he was holding baby Garv at arm's length, examining the toddler as though he had found a grossly mutated frog in a pond and was thoroughly disgusted by it.  
  
"Seriously, what happened?" Kurai asked, curiosity clearly written on her face.  
  
"What happened? This happened!" Val turned and held up little Garv for Kurai to see. "I can't take my eyes off him for even a second! He destroyed the Weapons' Room. They're his weapons, and he just goes in there and knocks the goddamn shelves down!"  
  
Kurai found this incredibly amusing, but held her tongue. She had a proposition to make, after all.  
  
Of course, misery loves company. "Lord Hellmaster is a handful, too. I'm afraid to leave Kagami without my assistance for too long..." she trailed off, her tone worried.  
  
"Then get going," Valgarv snapped, waving toward the door. Of course, to do this, he had to partially let go of little Garv and nearly dropped him. Kurai had never seen anyone move as quickly as Val did to catch his master.  
  
She concealed her laughter behind her hand. When Val straightened and glared at her, her face was devoid of expression.  
  
"I have an idea," she began, "Why don't all of us get together and watch the Lords in one place? After all, there is strength in numbers." She kept her tone carefully nonchalant.  
  
"How would that make it better? There'd be five of us to watch five Dark Lords, only we'd be in the same place. I'd rather not." Valgarv didn't like the thought of spending any more time in the presence of the others than he absolutely had to.  
  
"Four Dark Lords, actually; Xelloss dropped Lord Beastmaster off with Lina Inverse so his hands can be free to search. And don't forget that Lord Dynast has two generals, so there'd be five watching four." Kurai smiled at him. Valgarv sweatdropped; he had a feeling that he wouldn't be allowed to say no, on penalty of being ruined. And he couldn't be more right.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
"Lord Dolphin! Please come out of there!!!"  
  
Dolphin had found a hole in the floor and had gone over to investigate it. To her delight, she'd discovered the "hole" to be a fish pond, complete with fish! She had hopped into it, scaring the hell out of the fish. There was a tunnel underwater, and she had followed it to where it opened on the other side of the room. This pond was bigger. It had a waterfall- like fountain in the center, which was gently sending cascading waves of water into the pond.  
  
In fact, the whole palace gave the sense of cascading waves. At each step Sunfish took, ripples of light shimmered out from his booted feet, much like a pebble thrown into a still pond. The walls, ceiling, and the floor all looked like water was being reflected onto it, so long as they weren't touched. Touching any of them resulted in that nifty rippling effect.  
  
With a sigh, Sunfish stepped into the pond, which went up to mid-calf on him. He moved slowly, so as not to frighten the fish, but more so as to not alert Lord Dolphin. She was giggling and splashing and he had a feeling that they would be needing replacement fish before this ordeal was through. When he was a mere meter away from Dolphin, she took notice of him and began to splash at him enthusiastically. Giggling all the while, she seized one of her fish and made to throw it at Sunfish, but the poor animal managed to wriggle out of her grasp just after it left the water and was now swimming away from her as fast as its fins would allow.  
  
"Alright, Lord Dolphin, that's enough." Sunfish grabbed a hold on the giggling child and sloshed out of the pond. This was how Kurai and a scowling Valgarv found him. He paled considerably.  
  
"Well, I see you're having troubles as well, Sunfish." Kurai addressed the Priest-in-training. "I have an idea, and Valgarv agreed with me," here Kurai shot Valgarv a look that clearly said: 'Don't you dare disagree with me', "that we should cooperate on watching our masters. It'll be easier on all of us, don't you agree?"  
  
Wordlessly, Sunfish nodded. He had never been a natural leader......  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
"You want us to what?"  
  
"You heard me."  
  
Kurai's voice was firm and authoritive. It worked great against the peon minions. It didn't do a thing to the egoist known as Norst.  
  
"We don't need any help," a cold, flat voice rang across the room. The speaker was Sherra. Being naturally overprotective of her Lord, Sherra treated each and every visitor with suspicion. She was worse now because the Dynast was vulnerable.  
  
Kurai sighed. These two were agreeing with each other. Wonderful. She'd assumed that they'd disagree like they usually do. She'd have to take a different strategy. As much as she loathed doing it, she'd have to appeal to their egos and put herself down just a little. She braced herself for the sickening feeling and said: "I never said that you needed help," Kurai silently noted that they didn't; Dynast was being very cooperative in Sherra's arms, "but we do."  
  
The two Generals of Dynast Grausherra looked taken aback by her statement. A Mazoku putting itself down, even that little bit, could be very painful. Not only that, but she had stroked their egos. This effectively made the two of them feel far above anyone else in the room, save Dynast-sama. Sherra smirked.  
  
Norst mirrored her expression and said, "Well, if you're desperate..."  
  
Kurai winced. She'd never be hearing the end of this.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
Xelloss growled under his breath in frustration. He had found residual strands of the spell that had turned his master along with her brothers and sister into toddlers, but not only was he unable to determine the type of magic, let alone the user, but the trail that was left by a spell from the caster to the target was wiped out. He had hit a dead end.  
  
There was nothing Xelloss hated more than not knowing. He, the Trickster Priest, who prided himself in his hoards of information, was completely and utterly stumped! Not only was it frustrating, but it was--dare he say it?-- embarrassing! He knew that the answer must be there; there is always an answer, but he couldn't find it. He hadn't a clue as to how to find it. Xelloss shook his head. He was getting too worked up, thinking too hard. He decided to take a break for a few hours and begin anew.  
  
After all, it couldn't be as hard as it seemed.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
"Miss Lina, do you even know how to take care of her?" Amelia asked.  
  
"How hard can it be?" Lina shrugged, full of confidence.  
  
The two of them were in their inn room, having a girls' private time. Little Zelas was lying on her stomach on Lina's bed, investigating the quilt work on the blanket with intense interest. She was a toddler, fairly harmless, but with the driving curiosity of any baby. She was a danger to herself. The Lina-tachi, however, was unaware of this; she hadn't had a chance to get into any trouble all day.  
  
They were in for a big surprise.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
It's short, I know, but yeah. Thank you Digi-riven for the one and ONLY suggestion! (Which was put to use in this chapter.) Now all of you readers go and read her fics!! ::end Riven's plug::  
  
I know what I wanna do with this story; I just don't know how to get there. I was serious when I said I need suggestions.  
  
Please review. And if you have any suggestions, drop them at my E-mail box or say them in the review. My address is: sherra@northernfootholds.zzn.com  
  
You know you want to...... 


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